Academics

Log in

Subscribe

Subscribing to Eurasianet allows you to access more than 15 years of archived content. Subscriptions are currently free of charge.

Email address

Password

Confirm password

Tajikistan: Prayer Leaders Detained in Latest Anti-Islam Offensive

Apr 6, 2016

For the first time in Tajikistan, mosque prayer leaders have been arraigned on terrorism charges.

The six people on trial are accused of membership in the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization banned in Tajikistan.

This marks a departure from the norm since prayer leaders, or imam khatib, are more commonly targeted with charges of sexual molestation or even witchcraft.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tajik service, Ozodi, reported on April 5 that the group was arrested in March and have since been in pre-trial detention. Authorities have declined to provide any further information, arguing that it could interfere with the course of investigations.

A lawyer for one of the accused told EurasiaNet.org that the men were detained at various locations around Sughd and that all of them were graduates of the Islamic University of Madinah, in Saudi Arabia.